Irina Afanasyeva Koldovstoretz

Born to Onisim and Zoya Afanasyeva at the start of February 2007 was a girl they named Irina. They wanted to name her that because she was their new found мир or peace and that was what the name Irina meant. Her middle name followed the Russian tradition of being a patronymic, it was her fathers name, Onisim, with the female suffix -ovna. Both Onisim and Zoya were maglys or маглы and knew of the folklore stories but didn’t believe that it could be real.

At the start of her life, Irina and her parents were very happy, everything was going great and they even adopted a young boy who was 2 years older then Irina. Due to growing up in a Russian household, she learned Russian as her first language. Her mom already knew English and believed that it was a very important language to learn so she taught them it as well. The Afanasyevas were quite content with their life until magic started emerging in Irina. One day all of a sudden she got angry at her brother and somehow burned his homework that he was working on. Neither of her parents believed her brother when he said that she had set in flames.

Her parents had forgot about the incident but other weird things started to happen revolving around Irina. Her dad had started to believe that she was something of the folklore and wanted to abandon her but Zoya wouldn’t let that happen. Soon Irina, 6 at the time, had an accident with her blooming magic involving her dad and it winded up causing a lot of family problems. Her brother had already disliked her since the homework incident but now her dad was pushed over the edge. Both of them winded up leaving together and stopped communicating with Zoya and Irina.

Irina wasn’t sure what had happened at first but soon came to understand it. Her mom stayed with her through the tough times and always told her “Что бы ни говорили другие, не бойтесь быть самим собой”(No matter what anyone else says, don’t be afraid to be your unique self). Irina’s magic had subsided a bit and she starting going to маглы school. At the start she was scared for someone to find out but with her mom’s help she found a way to suppress her magic and be herself at school.

She loved going to school and really enjoyed making friends but never told anyone about her magic. It was a bit of a struggle at her house since her mom now had to support Irina alone but they made it work and still had a good time together. Irina had made a really close best friend over a few years and decided to to tell her one day about the odd stuff that happened to her. She had expected the friend to still want to be friends with her but she stopped communicating with Irina completely. This was the incident that gave her major trust issues. Just to safe in case her old friend told anyone, Irina and Zoya moved a few towns over.

They thought that this would be a new opportunity and Zoya continued to tell Irina the same phrase, “ Что бы ни говорили другие, не бойтесь быть самим собой”(No matter what anyone else says, don’t be afraid to be your unique self). Irina magic continued to grow though and they started to get worried that the secret would get out soon. Surprisingly someone in the new town figured out about her magic and was a magical person themselves. They told Irina and Zoya about the great opportunity Koldovstoretz was. It took a bit to convince Irina to leave her mom but Zoya convinced her that it was going to help her a lot and that she needed to go.

With help from the magical person, Irina went to the school at the age of 9 and really enjoyed that everyone was like her. She went to follow her mom’s advice to be herself and found it much easier in this new school.

Group 6: Potions
At age 9, Irina came to Koldovstoretz and started out in group 3. She had a slight control of her magic and understood what it could do. Soon enough, she was moved up to group 4 where she learned some of the properties of her magic and how to summon it. At the age of 11, a Mentor told her that she would be best suited in group 5 which focused on dueling. She learned charms and jinxes and spells for almost 3 years. Even though Irina was hitting her mark and succeeding in every spell, it didn’t feel right to her. She didn’t want to be the one who would intentionally try and hurt people with her magic. She wanted more to help people and she wasn’t give much of an opportunity to do that in group 5.

When Irina traveled to Hogwarts and went to Blossom Ball, she felt happy and safe that she knew all these spells but that was short lived. One wrong drink from a cup sent her mind into a furious state and she said some stuff she didn’t mean. Then her friend Nate did the same thing, they had both made the mistake of drinking potions. At that moment, Irina realized that she wanted, no needed to truly dive into the art of potion making. She needed to recognize potions before they were taken to help prevent the mistake she made. In addition, she wanted to be able to help out her friends if they were ever in those circumstances again.

Returning to Koldovstoretz, she faced the daunting task of attempting to change her magical focus. Irina wasn’t afraid of this task and knew that potions was much more of her calling than dueling. Approaching her group 5 teacher, she attempted to explain how she liked learning spells but didn’t really want to harm people with them. Irina told them she never felt like she was reaching her full potential in group 5 and explained what happen at the ball. Also, she shared that she wished to help and wanted to prevent any more instances of what happened at Hogwarts.

They seemed to understand and with talks to a few other administrators she was temporarily added to group 6. Irina had to start fresh in this new group and knew it would be a big challenge to work up to the level she wanted to be at but, she was determined to succeed. She believed this was where her calling was and wanted to be able to help out her friends in that way. Learning potions already felt like home and Irina was motivated to have group 6 work out for her.

Magical Schools Arrival Thread - In which Irina arrives at Hogwarts and talks to Nate during the opening feast.
Blossom Ball - Underworld - In which Irina
Orpheus - In which Irina gets fooled by her dad’s voice and fails the trial.
Hades - In which Irina almost succeeds in the trial.
Hecate - In which Irina successfully completes the trial.
Persephone - In which Irina found the flowers in the second round.
Hermes - In which Irina falls on her face and fails the trial.
Apollo - In which Irina recites a poem and earns a token.